Building the A4000 commencing

[irishmike]

Hello All:

As most of the regulars here know, I am embarking on building up my A4000 system.

Still need some parts, if you can help please PMAIL me, and I will go over the list with you.



Anyhow, looking to the processor card.  Testing of the Mainboards I have has gone very well and I have actually ordered the 3.1 ROMs for the A4000 from Amigakit!  We tested the mainboards with a borrowed A3640 Processor board... it belongs to a friend of mine and he is NOT willing to sell it!

Anyhow, was looking into this and came upon a refurbished Cyberstorm MK II 060 accelerator at Amigakit.  Is this a good choice for accelerator board?  It is pricey, but this is a key choice for the system ;-).  My dream is to find a Warp Engine for it!

Really just wondering about the Cyberstorm card.

The other real challenge is the graphics card... obviously they are out there.  But I think those two are most expensive of the parts!

Plus would like advice on the case, I have an incomplete case, but I am considering building my own for it using an ATX power supply.  It looks real straight forward to build an adapter for the A4000 and naturally, it will be better in the long run over the stock 175 Watt-er that is standard in the desktop case.

Hope someone can help me find the other parts I need as well!

Thanks all,

Mike

[Flashlab]

I have a CS MK2 060 and I'm very happy with it!

[irishmike]

@flashlab

Worth $391 USD?  I figured it would run about $400 for the Warp Engine anyhow :-)


Have you had any glitches running it?

Thanks man,

Mike

[Flashlab]

It's a lot of money for the little processing power you get nowadays but you mustn't look at it like that I guess....

My CS MK2 has a custom firmware that should make it bootable without 060 libs when you insert a WB disk. Never tested this though...

The CS MK2 is easy to overclock; just insert a different crystal and away you go. Only problem is that the SCSI part (which you have to buy seperately) may not work in that case. I tried overclocking and it worked with my SCSI setup when I remove the cd-rom.

If you just use it at 50 MHz it is very stable and I have no trouble with it so far...

[Ilwrath]

My CS MK2 has a custom firmware that should make it bootable without 060 libs when you insert a WB disk. Never tested this though...

They all do this, as far as I know.  I routinely booted mine off all sorts of disks that didn't have 060 libraries....  And mine had the last update of the stock firmware; I know, because I flashed it.  :-)

Honestly, I'd take the CS-MK2 before the Warp Engine any day.
(Not that the Warp isn't a great card, too... Just that I remember how awesome my CS-MK2 was.)  

Sadly the card passed away a year ago or so, and I've yet to send it off for repairs.  But that was after over 10 years of dedicated service; with over 7 of those being my primary computer.  (From 1994-2001 my A4000/CS-MK2 was the rock-solid computer I used every single day.  And up until early 2005 or so when the card failed, the machine still saw semi-regular service.)

Honestly, for $391 US, you'll be lucky if I don't buy that CS-MK2 out from under ya.  ;-)

[irishmike]

@llwrath

This was at Amigakit, I assume he has more than one since he advertises it as in stock ;-)  So you wouldn't be buying it out from under me :-)

Here is the

link

@Everyone

Wow, price went up to $459 USD -- that puts it (for right now) out of my price range.

EDIT:  That is weird, the price keeps fluctuating on me.  Looked at the page again just now and the price was back at $391 USD... weird translation from Pounds to Dollars maybe?  It is £211 BP and that doesn't seem to change.

[Ilwrath]

Wow, price went up to $459 USD -- that puts it (for right now) out of my price range.

Yeah, I actually looked just after posting this, and that was the price I saw, too.  Still not a BAD deal, but not as good as it would have been.

I really want a CS-MK3 PPC, but I really don't want to pay what they bring.  :lol:

[irishmike]

Also could still use leads on the following parts:

A4000 Keyboard
880K Amiga Floppy Drive
A3640 Processor Card (most likely)
A good video card for the A4000 (Zorro II or III)

Also, looking for the Octal/Line buffer chip 74FCT244T 20 pin DIP that goes in U103 on the Rev B. Board.  So if anyone has a battery damaged or dead Rev B.  I would be interested in obtaining two of these chips.

Thanks,

Mike

[TjLaZer]

IMHO the CSMKII is the card to get!  It is awesome and works great in the A4000.  Plus the MKII 060 is over 4 times faster than the Warp Engine so why would you get that car for any less that half the cost of the 060???

I might have a 880k Chinon drive for the A4000 with a white face!  Let me see....

[TjLaZer]

I'll let you know if I find that drive.

Actually if that GVP T-Rex II 060 card  is still for sale I would grab that!  I use that same card on my A4000 @ 66Mhz!!!  It rocks...  Stable and also has SCSI on it.

[amigakit]

@irishmike
No you do not pay any VAT(sales tax) so price you will pay will be $391

We are working on fixing this so the VAT isnt displayed on us.amigakit.com - it disappears once you log in though.

Sorry about the confusion.

An 880K 3.5" floppy drive + long Amiga floppy cable is here:

http://amigakit.leamancomputing.com/catalog/product_info.php?products_id=106

[irishmike]

@amigakit

Thanks for clearing that up.  It was a bit of a shock to me, but I figured it was in the translation to USD somehow because the £211 never changed :-)

I will be ordering these things as funds allow.


@everyone

Could really use the real A4000 keyboard for sure and of course the chips I mentioned earlier ;-)

[TjLaZer]

If you really need a keyboard just get any A2000 keyboard and a regular PC PS/2 to XT keyboard adaptor!!!!

[Argus]

@Tjlazer

The only problem with ps2 adaptors on the A4000 is you lose access to the 23pin rgb port because every one of these adaptors i've see is too short and wide so you can't put one in the ps2 style port on the a4000 and still access the 23pin connector.  Maybe there's a long thin one or a ps2 extension cable leading out to the adaptor?

[amigakit]

We stock a long thin A2000 keyboard adapter that doesn't obstruct other ports on the A4000:

http://amigakit.leamancomputing.com/catalog/product_info.php?products_id=461